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Google To Offer Free 5GB Of Cloud Space (25th April, 2012)

Google has entered the market for offering online storage space. Their new service, called Google Drive, will be in direct competition with rival cloud storage services like Dropbox, Apple's iCloud and Microsoft's SkyDrive. The search giant will offer 5GB (gigabytes) of storage for free for those wishing to keep their photos, documents and other files online. Keeping things in the cloud means users can access their files from any computer anywhere in the world, as long as it has Internet access. At the top end, Google will offer 16TB (terabytes) of space – at a price of $799.99 a month. Sixteen terabytes is sufficient to store 16,000 movies. For most people, the free 5GB option will be more than enough space.

Google senior vice-president of apps Sundar Pichai said the launch of Drive was an important step for the company. He wrote on a blog post: "Drive is a central place where you can create, share, collaborate and keep all of your stuff.…You can take all your data, regardless of which device you're on, and make it seamlessly available to you." Some industry insiders believe Google's entry into the cloud storage market could shake it up. Richard Edwards, an analyst at the research firm Ovum, said Google's move could stir Facebook into action. "Facebook doesn't have a cloud service but this may prompt it into an acquisition," he said. He added: "If Facebook was to buy Dropbox, that would be a game-changer."

WARM-UPS

1. ONLINE STORAGE: Walk around the class and talk to other students about online storage. Change partners often. Sit with your first partner(s) and share your findings.

2. CHAT: In pairs / groups, decide which of these topics or words from the article are most interesting and which are most boring.

Have a chat about the topics you liked. Change topics and partners frequently.

3. STORAGE: How best can we store things? Complete this table with your partner(s). Change partners and share what you wrote. Change and share again.

How best to store them?

Pros and cons

Digital photos

Paper photos

Books

Music

Passport

Memories

4. CLOUD: Students A strongly believe the cloud is the best thing to happen to storing digital photos, music, movies, documents, etc.; Students B strongly believe otherwise. Change partners again and talk about your conversations.

5. DATA: What's most important to you? Rank these and share your rankings with your partner. Put the most important at the top. Change partners and share your rankings again.

music

photos

games

documents

passwords

apps

movies / videos

e-mails

6. RIVAL: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word 'rival'. Share your words with your partner(s) and talk about them. Together, put the words into different categories.

WHILE READING / LISTENING

GAP FILL: Put the words into the gaps in the text.

Google has (1) ____________ the market for offering online (2) ____________ space. Their new service, called Google Drive, will be in (3) ____________ competition with rival cloud storage services like Dropbox, Apple's iCloud and Microsoft's SkyDrive. The search (4) ____________ will offer 5GB (gigabytes) of storage for free for those (5) ____________ to keep their photos, documents and other files online. Keeping things in the cloud means users can (6) ____________ their files from any computer anywhere in the world, as long as it has Internet access. At the top end, Google will offer 16TB (terabytes) of space – at a price of $799.99 a month. Sixteen terabytes is (7) ____________ to store 16,000 movies. For most people, the free 5GB (8) ____________ will be more than enough space.

accessenteredsufficientdirectstoragewishingoptiongiant

Google senior vice-president of (9) ____________ Sundar Pichai said the launch of Drive was an important step for the company. He wrote on a blog post: "Drive is a (10) ____________ place where you can create, share, collaborate and keep all of your stuff.…You can take all your data, (11) ____________ of which device you're on, and make it (12) ____________ available to you." Some industry insiders believe Google's entry into the cloud storage market could (13) ____________ it up. Richard Edwards, an analyst at the research firm Ovum, said Google's move could (14) ____________ Facebook into action. "Facebook doesn't have a cloud service but this may prompt it into an (15) ____________," he said. He added: "If Facebook was to buy Dropbox, that would be a (16) ____________ -changer."

regardlessgameappscentralshakeacquisitionseamlesslystir

LISTENING – Listen and fill in the gaps

Google has entered the market ___________________ storage space. Their new service, called Google Drive, will be ___________________ with rival cloud storage services like Dropbox, Apple's iCloud and Microsoft's SkyDrive. The ___________________ offer 5GB (gigabytes) of storage for free for those wishing to keep their photos, documents and other files online. Keeping things in the cloud means users can access their files from any computer anywhere in the world, ___________________ Internet access. At the top end, Google will offer 16TB (terabytes) of space – at a price of $799.99 a month. Sixteen terabytes is ___________________ 16,000 movies. For most people, the free 5GB option will be ___________________ space.

Google senior vice-president of apps Sundar Pichai said the launch of Drive was ___________________ for the company. He wrote on a blog post: "Drive is a central place where you can create, share, ___________________ all of your stuff.…You can take all your data, regardless of which device you're on, and make it ___________________ to you." Some industry insiders believe Google's entry into the cloud storage market ___________________. Richard Edwards, an analyst at the research firm Ovum, said Google's ___________________ Facebook into action. "Facebook doesn't have a cloud service but this may prompt it ___________________," he said. He added: "If Facebook was to buy Dropbox, that would be a game-changer."

Are you happier with digital photos and music or do you prefer the traditional paper pictures and CDs and records?

f)

What would happen if Facebook offered free storage?

g)

Do you think people might actually need 16 terabytes of storage one day?

h)

What would you do if all digital content would disappear by the day after tomorrow?

i)

What do you think of Google?

j)

What questions would you like to ask Google senior vice-president of apps Sundar Pichai?

LANGUAGE – MULTIPLE CHOICE

Google has entered the market for (1) ____ online storage space. Their new service, called Google Drive, will be in (2) ____ competition with rival cloud storage services like Dropbox, Apple's iCloud and Microsoft's SkyDrive. The search (3) ____ will offer 5GB (gigabytes) of storage for free for those wishing to keep their photos, documents and other files online. Keeping things in the cloud means users can (4) ____ their files from any computer anywhere in the world, as (5) ____ as it has Internet access. At the top end, Google will offer 16TB (terabytes) of space – at a price of $799.99 a month. Sixteen terabytes is sufficient to store 16,000 movies. For most people, the free 5GB option will be more than (6) ____ space.

Google senior vice-president of apps Sundar Pichai said the launch (7) ____ Drive was an important step for the company. He wrote on a blog post: "Drive is a central place where you can create, share, (8) ____ and keep all of your stuff.…You can take all your data, regardless of which device you're on, and make it (9) ____ available to you." Some industry (10) ____ believe Google's entry into the cloud storage market could shake it up. Richard Edwards, an analyst at the research firm Ovum, said Google's move could (11) ____ Facebook into action. "Facebook doesn't have a cloud service but this may prompt it into an acquisition," he said. He added: "If Facebook was to buy Dropbox, that would be a (12) ____-changer."

HOMEWORK

1. VOCABULARY EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or Google's search field (or another search engine) to build up more associations / collocations of each word.

2. INTERNET: Search the Internet and find out more about online storage. Share what you discover with your partner(s) in the next lesson.

3. BACK UP: Make a poster about backing up computer files. Show your work to your classmates in the next lesson. Did you all have similar things?

4. DRIVE: Write a magazine article about Google Drive. Include imaginary interviews with executives from Google, Apple and Microsoft.

Read what you wrote to your classmates in the next lesson. Write down any new words and expressions you hear from your partner(s).

5. LETTER: Write a letter to Google senior vice-president of apps Sundar Pichai. Ask him three questions about online storage. Give him three of your ideas on how to make it better. Read your letter to your partner(s) in your next lesson. Your partner(s) will answer your questions.

ANSWERS

TRUE / FALSE:

a.

F

b.

F

c.

T

d.

F

e.

T

f.

F

g.

T

h.

T

SYNONYM MATCH:

1.

rival

a.

adversary

2.

offer

b.

provide

3.

wishing

c.

wanting

4.

access

d.

retrieve

5.

sufficient

e.

enough

6.

collaborate

f.

join forces

7.

regardless of

g.

irrespective of

8.

prompt

h.

encourage

9.

acquisition

i.

purchase

10.

added

j.

went on to say

PHRASE MATCH:

1.

Google has entered

a.

the market

2.

in direct competition with rival

b.

cloud storage services

3.

search

c.

giant

4.

Keeping things

d.

in the cloud

5.

more than

e.

enough space

6.

an important step

f.

for the company

7.

regardless

g.

of which device

8.

industry

h.

insiders

9.

stir Facebook

i.

into action

10.

this may prompt it into an

j.

acquisition

GAP FILL:

Google to offer free 5GB of cloud space

Google has (1) entered the market for offering online (2) storage space. Their new service, called Google Drive, will be in (3) direct competition with rival cloud storage services like Dropbox, Apple's iCloud and Microsoft's SkyDrive. The search (4) giant will offer 5GB (gigabytes) of storage for free for those (5) wishing to keep their photos, documents and other files online. Keeping things in the cloud means users can (6) access their files from any computer anywhere in the world, as long as it has Internet access. At the top end, Google will offer 16TB (terabytes) of space – at a price of $799.99 a month. Sixteen terabytes is (7) sufficient to store 16,000 movies. For most people, the free 5GB (8) option will be more than enough space.

Google senior vice-president of (9) apps Sundar Pichai said the launch of Drive was an important step for the company. He wrote on a blog post: "Drive is a (10) central place where you can create, share, collaborate and keep all of your stuff.…You can take all your data, (11) regardless of which device you're on, and make it (12) seamlessly available to you." Some industry insiders believe Google's entry into the cloud storage market could (13) shake it up. Richard Edwards, an analyst at the research firm Ovum, said Google's move could (14) stir Facebook into action. "Facebook doesn't have a cloud service but this may prompt it into an (15) acquisition," he said. He added: "If Facebook was to buy Dropbox, that would be a (16) game-changer."